Phonics is the relationship between sounds and how we spell words. According to the NSW Department of Education and Training Learning and Development, "An essential part of learning to read and write is the understanding that letters and combinations of letters make up particular sounds and words. Without knowing letter-sound correspondences, learners are deprived of a fundamental means of recognizing and producing known words and of figuring out new ones when reading and writing". This means that children need to know how to sound out letters to put them together to create a word. Being able to do so will help children sound out words they know as well as words they might not know. Phonics should be something that is added into students lessons. In Phonics They Use, Patricia Cunningham says "phonics is an important part of any complete reading program".
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Phonics
The teacher will start by putting students in small groups. The teacher will hand each group of students a stack of cards containing a letter as well as a chart containing pictures (with a blank space to the right of the pictures). The example above is of the chart containing pictures, a blown up version of an example on the chart (the monkey), and a card with a letter. The pictures in the chart each have a word below them. These words are either initial, medial, or final.
The students start by shuffling the cards containing the letters. After the cards are shuffled they should be placed face down between all of the students in the group. One student will begin by drawing a card. They must sound out the letter. For example, if they were to draw an "m", they would sound out the letter "m". Once they sound out the letter, they have to find the picture that matches the sound. The example above is a picture of a monkey. Under the monkey is the word "initial". The students would then match the "m" to the monkey because the initial sound in the word monkey is "m".
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In this activity the students will have to say the name of the picture (“monkey”). Isolate initial sound and say, “/m/.” Find the matching letter (i.e., “m” card) and lay it down next to the “monkey.”
This will continue until all pictures have been matched with letter cards.
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According to literacy instruction,
Phoneme segmentation is an example of a phonological awareness skill.
Instruction in phonological awareness skills supports the acquisition of literacy skills.
Students who have strong phonological awareness skills demonstrate better literacy skills.
Both of these activities involve segmenting sounds to match the sounds a letter may make to either the initial, medial, or final sounds in a word shown by a picture.
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http://www.fcrr.org/resources/resources_sca_2-3.html
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​http://aacliteracy.psu.edu/index.php/page/show/id/5/index.html
Letter sound match
3-4th grade
clip-a-letter
k-2
This activity would require each student to have a circle of letters, pictures, and multiple clothespins(optional). To save time, the teacher can cut out each letter individually.
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The objective of this activity is for the students to match up each letter to the initial sound of the picture. For example, one picture on the top of the circle is "jam". The student will be in charge of sounding out the word "jam". The initial sound is "j". The student will place the cut out letter "j" and place it on top of the picture of "jam". The teacher can choose to have the students place the letter to the picture or use a clothespin to secure it in place.
This lesson is beneficial because it helps students begin to segment sounds. They are looking for the initial sounds in words they see as a picture. In order to find the initial sound, they must segment the word.
Incorporating pictures into lessons can be very beneficial for elementary students. The pictures above can represent environmental print. All first graders know that when they see an apple, that it is in fact an apple. According to Sarah Punkoney, Environmental print like signs and labels help children make the connection that objects and areas have names, which also carry meaning." When students see these basic objects they automatically know what they are. Putting an initial sound to these pictures can help students understand these words.
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http://www.fcrr.org/resources/resources_sca_k-1.html
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https://stayathomeeducator.com/the-importance-of-teaching-meaningful-phonics-2/